Resolutions and Threads
by Vampiyaa
Summary: At a New Year's party hosted by Jackie, the Doctor makes a New Year's resolution at Rose's request, yet despite it being written in Gallifreyan he doesn't let her see it. She tells him not to worry: nobody ever actually follows their New Year's resolutions. Ten/Rose Who Holiday smut!


Resolutions and Threads

Rose Tyler could definitely say that, after the last couple of years she'd spent with the Doctor, that she had plenty of things she wouldn't allow herself to do again. There was a list, in fact, that she kept in her dresser drawer, several of the written things being something like 'don't let the Doctor jiggery-pokery appliances' and 'Daleks aren't to be trusted, no matter how battered they may seem'. During the end of the New Year holiday, Rose managed to add one more thing to her list that she was more than happy to not do.

It began somewhat like this...

* * *

"HAPPY NEW YEAR, ROSE TYLER!"

The Doctor's happy screech sliced through the wonderful dream she'd been having and made her heart nearly fly out of her mouth as she bounded forward in her bed, only to smack her forehead into whatever hard thing was placed near her head. Judging by the Doctor's whiny, "Ow!" it'd been his head she'd collided with.

"Doctor..." she started in a low, dangerous voice, hand on her forehead, "what have I said about screaming me awake?"

"Not to do it," he said, rubbing the spot on his forehead whilst beaming. His grin disappeared. "Oops."

"Yeah, oops," Rose growled, glaring at him, flopping back down on the bed and yanking the covers over her head.

"But Roooose," he whined. "You've got a whole new year ahead of you. Why waste thirty nine per cent of it sleeping?"

"There's no way it's thirty nine per cent," Rose mumbled, but she obediently tossed the blanket off of her head so that it draped over the Doctor (who actually squeaked in alarm) and padding over to her dresser to get dressed.

He pulled the blanket off, electrifying his hair and making him look like a mad scientist, before he took one look at Rose properly and his mouth dropped open. "Err, R-Rose?"

"Hm?" she hummed with irritation, upon pulling out a shirt from her top drawer.

"Ah— y-you... er, that's— um, wh—" he choked, before turning a brilliant red and mumbling, "You're in your knickers."

She glared at him, even though her cheeks were heating up. "S'your fault, y'know. Keep barging in— you're bound to see something." They spent a moment of awkward silence before Rose regarded him sharply. "You're not gonna watch me dress too, are you?"

His flush returned. "Right. I'll just, eh... gonna—" He pointed to the door, rubbed his neck and then practically flung himself out the door.

Rose snorted, kicked the door shut behind him and proceeded to get herself ready for the day. When she finished her make-up, feeling considerably more awake, and bounced out into the galley, she found him sitting cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by bits and bobs, sonic in hand, brainy specs on his nose and a few pieces of metal in his hair.

"You take forever to get ready," he greeted her, going cross-eyed as he examined a centimetre-by-centimetre piece closely.

"I'd be a lot quicker if I got enough sleep," she said, opening the cupboard and pulling out her favourite flowery pink mug. She made herself a cuppa to the sound of the TARDIS's humming and the sonic's whirring, before she noticed something was missing. "Doctor, where's the toaster?"

"Er..."

Rose turned around slowly and regarded him, his sheepish look and the pile of wires and bobs surrounding him. "Never mind." Grabbing her cuppa and remarking in her mind that she'd have to bully the Doctor into buying a new toaster (since whatever he was trying to do with it now wouldn't work in her lifetime) she said, "So are you coming to mum's New Year's party?"

"Ooh, yes," he said happily, and she beamed at him. "Hold on, what's the condition?"

"You can't touch her washer," Rose said. "Apparently the last time you 'fixed' it, it spat out the soap at her and wouldn't accept anything pink, which is, like, half her wardrobe."

"Done," he said, as she cleared a spot among the remains of the toaster and sitting next to him.

"So, another year of running from giant space slugs, being mistaken for gods and your big mouth getting us nearly executed," she said with relish, sipping her cup.

"Can't wait," he grinned, wagging his eyebrows at her.

She beamed, tongue in teeth. "Me neither." She sobered. "S'gonna be pretty domestic though. You're gonna haveta meet like half of my family."

He contemplated that for a moment, a myriad of emotions flickering across his face from worry to confidence. "Right. That's... right. Okay. Fill me in."

"As far as I know, my gran, my great-uncle, six of my cousins and two of my second cousins are gonna be there, along with my mum's mate Bev, her bloke and her son, and Mickey," Rose said, counting off on her fingers.

He pulled a face at the mention of Mickey but nodded determinedly. "Your cousins are?"

She cringed. "All you need to know about them is they're all female and in their late twenties, so you may want to watch out. You won't need to worry about Abigail, since she's got a fiancé, but the others..." Both of them shuddered.

Rose's mobile suddenly began to ring in her jeans pocket, so she set her cuppa down inside the sea of metal bits, pulled it out and flipped it open. "'Lo?"

"_Rose!_" Jackie all but screeched, the sound of clanging pots in the background. "I've been tryin' to ring you for ages, I have! When are you and himself gettin' here?"

"I was asleep, mum," Rose sighed, pulling the mobile away for a second to check. There it was— nine missed calls. "And the Doctor and I'll be there when it starts. We're not coming early," she added, before Jackie could protest.

"Fine," Jackie said grumpily. "Tell himself to wear something other than that horrid suit and trainer mix. Try a bowtie, for once."

"I'll try, mum," Rose said. "See you at the party."

"Later."

They hung up and Rose picked up her cuppa again. "Mum says you have to wear something other than your trainers."

The Doctor pulled a face. "But Roooose..."

"Mum's rules. And don't whine."

"Time Lords don't whine, Rose."

"Yeah? Then what was that?"

"Complaining." He dropped the pieces of the toaster into the pile and stood up, scowling. "Fine, I'll change. D'you wanna go now?"

"May as well," Rose sighed, accepting his outstretched hand and trying not to read too much into the way his fingers practically caressed her palm. "I'm going to the wardrobe room."

She set down her still half-full mug and left the galley, leaving unnoticed the fact that the Doctor was watching her intently. Once she was out of sight and earshot, he sighed heavily. He'd much rather spend New Year's like they did the year previous, with snuggling on the couch in front of the telly, cradling cuppas and Rose laughing at the _Terminator _reboot of 2098 while he grinned like an idiot and savoured her proximity. Now he'd have to meet her family... yuck. The big-eared him was on the floor, laughing at him in his mind and shouting about how terribly domestic it was.

On the plus side, she'd probably wear a dress. One of those really beautiful, scarlet ones that made her lips look so much rosier and complimented the blush he'd make spread across her face and down over her breasts.

Trying desperately to shake those thoughts out of his head, the Doctor cleared a path through the bits and bobs of toaster and headed to his room to change his tie and his trainers.

* * *

He was in the console room, having already punched in the coordinates for the Powell Estates, trying not to pace and failing when she walked in.

She didn't noticed him gaping like a fish, as she was rummaging around in her handbag in search of lipstick, but he was there, gaping like a fish all right. Rose looked utterly _magnificent, _dressed to the nines (and then some) in a light pink knee-high strapless dress, the hem bordered with white lace and the waist tied with a white chiffon sash. It hugged her from the waist up and showed off the swell of her breasts; at the sight of them his mouth went dry and he knew he'd have so much fun watching her blush sweep down there. He pretended he hadn't been looking when Rose finally looked away from her handbag, walking over to him with more grace than should be allowed in a pair of pink strappy heels, and pretended even more that he hadn't been noticing the swish of the dress around her frankly brilliant legs or the swinging of her hips. Good Rassilon, he loved her. More than that (or not), he wanted her. Badly. And it felt every day like his control was a finely twined thread, a thread that was being tested every day with Rose Tyler's utter seductiveness.

"Thought you were s'posed to change," Rose said patronisingly, eyes sweeping over him.

"I changed my chucks, and my tie," he said indignantly, before holding out his hand and grinning manically. "Allons-y?"

She grinned, tongue in teeth, accepting his outstretched hand and gripping it tightly as the two of them stepped into the evening London air. They walked swiftly to Jackie's flat, the Doctor trying not to cringe when he noticed the gathering of people climbing up the Estates steps. As though sensing his discomfort Rose gave his hand a gentle squeeze, and he grinned at her before holding his head high and walking towards the onslaught of Prentices.

Before they even reached the stairs there were at least a dozen pairs of eyes on the two of them. He tried not to wriggle under the scrutiny and at the same time tried not to watch as the blush he'd anticipated swept over Rose's face and downward.

"Um," Rose all but whispered. "Hello."

Immediately there was a cacophony of squeals that were too high-pitched to be human. Rose was forced at once to let go of his hand as the group of women — ranging from middle-aged housewives to women that looked like they'd just finished college — swooped down on her.

"Ooh, look at you, love, all grown up and looking so lovely—"

"— brilliant in that dress, sweetheart, your mum must be so proud—"

"— grown a good couple'a inches since the last time I saw you—"

He tried not to beam like an idiot when one of the younger girls cooed out, "Rose, you've got such a _gorgeous _bloke, you have!"

Rose went magenta and started to say, "Oh he's not—"

"Nice to meet you, Dr. John Smith," he interrupted her swiftly, shaking everyone's hands in turn and ignoring Rose's questioning (and slightly embarrassed) stare.

Jackie suddenly waltzed onto the balcony and shouted down at them, "OI, you lot! Are you gonna have the party outside?"

The group laughed before the chatter and bustling up the steps began. Rose found his hand again as they managed to manoeuvre up the steps and into the flat, and she leaned over and muttered, "Since when are you my boyfriend?"

He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, flushing. "Er..."

He was spared the answer by Mickey the Idiot coming over, greeting Rose with a peck on the lips (he glared at the back of Mickey's head) and a sideways glance at the Doctor. "How'd you manage to get himself to come? Bit domestic, innit?"

"He wanted to come, Micks," Rose said, ignoring the way the Doctor tightened his grip on her hand and glared daggers at Mickey.

Jackie bustled over, greeting the onslaught of women with more kisses than the Doctor's had in centuries — not that he'd ever admit it — before turning her patronising stare on him. "I said not to wear that suit."

"Did not, you said not to wear my suit and trainers," he sniffed, adjusting his tie. "'m not wearing trainers."

She scoffed before waltzing back into the kitchen, muttering about daft aliens.

* * *

The Doctor spent the evening dodging Bev (who'd had a few too many and, despite having a bloke and a six year old son, was trying to get him to dance with her) and clasping hands with Rose, listening and watching her with doe-eyes as she shared altered anecdotes about their adventures. He had to control the urge to beam like a right fool at her when she expertly and smoothly transformed the Editor into a bothersome journalist of a major newspaper called Satellite Five News of the Jagrafess Broadcasting Corporation, which had been printing lies about people for years until the Doctor and Rose 'put a stop to the scandals' and shut down the company. All the while Rose kept alternating her legs, whether it was crossed at the ankles or one leg tossed casually over the other, and every time he spent an inordinate amount of time trying not to stare.

The thread was being pulled.

Abigail, Rose's engaged cousin, kept dropping hints about the Doctor proposing that were more like little bombs; Rose pretended not to hear every time and the Doctor avoided each 'hint' with well-practised deflection tactics that nearly always involved sticking nibbles into his mouth or engaging Abigail's fiancé in yet another conversation about footie. Then they gathered round the telly to watch the fireworks display, and he tried not to beam when Rose cheered as the clock struck midnight and she tossed her arms around his neck.

Things were pretty much all right, until Jackie pulled out a bunch of post-it notes and a jar of pens and suggested everyone write down their New Year's resolution.

Everyone greeted this idea with avid enthusiasm, even Rose. The Doctor watched as everyone took their own post-it and pen and wrote down things like 'I will get that promotion' or, in Bev's case, 'I will stay on that diet'. Rose scrawled hers down too quickly for him to read, before promptly folding it in half and sticking it, in all places, in her bra.

The thread was being yanked on again.

"Go on then, Doctor, aren't you gonna make a New Year's resolution?" Rose asked him, looking up at him all innocently as though she had no idea she'd just had her fingers down her dress (and that he wanted to do that).

"Nah, that's stupid," the Doctor said breezily, waving it off literally with a gesture of his hand.

"S'not," Rose insisted. "Go on, do it. You must have something you want to do better in the future."

He had plenty. He wanted to have adventures with Rose that involved him keeping her safe. He wanted more times where he saved the day and everybody lived. He also wanted to make certain that thread wouldn't break. But he couldn't exactly write that down. So instead he shrugged and said breezily, "Not really, no."

Rose mimed writing with an invisible pen and narrated, "'I will learn to pilot my ship properly so I do not bring Rose Tyler home twelve months late.'"

"Are you ever gonna let that go?" he sighed.

"No," chorused both she and Jackie from the room adjacent.

He scowled as Rose giggled and poked him in the thigh with a pen. "Go on then, Doctor. For me?" She grinned, tongue in teeth.

The thread stretched further.

Sticking his nose in the air, he grudgingly took the pen and post-it and muttered, "Fine."

Rose beamed at him, making him feel all tingly inside even though he had no idea what to write. It was that feeling that inspired him to write what he did, but he didn't write it in English— instead he wrote it specifically in his native language of circles, dots and lines.

Rose frowned at it, catching a glimpse of it on the offside and being surprised when the Doctor folded it up and stuffed it into his pocket, glaring at her. "What?"

"Don't peek," he said lightly.

She laughed. "Doctor, I can't read what it says."

"Don't peek," he repeated, frowning at her.

"But I want to see it," she said earnestly.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I'm not showing to you."

She opened her mouth to burst out how unfair that was when a past-the-point-of-tipsy Bev jumped up off the couch and voiced loudly about how she ought to get going. Rose was momentarily distracted by cousins and uncles and the like kissing her on the cheek, bidding her goodbye (Abigail's goodbye was a hurried whisper of, "Next time I see you, I'd better see a ring on your finger!"). Mickey left too, having chatted up one of Rose's single cousins (the Doctor wasn't pleased to see that that didn't stop him from pecking Rose goodbye). Once everybody was gone, Jackie, who was extremely pink in the cheeks, announced (slurred) that she was going to bed, because the floor was moving, and that if she woke up and they were naked on the couch she'd beat them to within an inch of their lives (cue the Rose Tyler blush). Rose helped her mum to bed while the Doctor headed to the couch and flopped none to gracefully on it, pulling out his sonic and starting to poke at it. When Rose returned, he grinned at her.

"Well, that was interesting!" he said cheerfully.

"Yeah," Rose grinned back, sitting on the armchair next to him. "Thanks for coming."

"Anything for you, Rose Tyler," he blurted out, before hiding behind his sonic and damn it, the thread was being tugged at again when she blushed with delight and it blossomed over her breasts.

"S'that right?" she said cheekily. "Then show me your resolution."

"No way," he said immediately, grin disappearing.

"C'mon Doctor, please?" Rose whined, sticking out her lower lip in a tantalising pout. Fuck he wished she wouldn't do that.

He gave her a stern look that reminded even him of his old big-eared self. "No."

"It doesn't make any sense!" she said, fiddling with the lace hem of her dress and glaring daggers at the Time Lord, who was purposely avoiding her by playing with his sonic screwdriver. "S'not like I can even read Circle—"

"S'called Circular Gallifreyan," he said indignantly, pressing a button on the sonic and making it beep.

"Yeah, that," Rose said, now examining her fingernails. "See, I didn't even know what it was called, and I can't read it, so why won't you show it to me?"

"If you didn't know what it was called, and you can't read it, why do you want to see it?" the Doctor shot back.

Unfortunately it was a valid point, but Rose wouldn't be deterred. "Don't change the subject, Mister, and answer the question."

He kept at his usual deflection. "Aren't New Year's resolutions supposed to be secret?"

"Depends." Rose shrugged, biting her nail. "Why, is yours a secret?"

"_Yes_," he said exasperatedly.

"Well, you could have just said!" she replied hotly, shooting him a glare.

"Well _excuse _me." He scowled and promptly stuck a handful of nibbles into his mouth, holding it there as he stuck his now free hand into the mess of wire, chewing vigorously as he went cross-eyed looking at the sonic. "Aawha thoo?"

"Say that again without your mouth full of nibbles," Rose snorted.

He gave the sonic one last poke and swallowed. "How about you?"

Rose scoffed. "Honestly, I just spent the past twenty minutes asking you what your resolution is — which you did not tell me — and now you're asking me what mine is? You have some nerve!"

"Oi!" he snapped, both because of her comment and because he'd just dropped the sonic and it'd hit him in the nose. "Why, is yours a secret too?"

"Apparently not," she muttered, scowling and thinking of Jackie's comments about the two of them.

"What' s that supposed to mean?"

When she didn't answer at first, he frowned and sat up properly to look at her, only to drop his jaw when he saw her blushing furiously. He raised his eyebrows at her, prompting her to look away and hide her face in her hands for a brief moment.

"Well?" he said expectantly.

"None o' your business," she mumbled, crossing her arms, slumping her shoulders and looking upset.

He frowned at her and stuck out his jaw. "Fine then, be that way."

"I will."

"Fine."

Silence, save for the whirring of the sonic and the slapping of wire on wire. Truth be told, he didn't want to show her what he'd written, just in case the TARDIS decided to stick her non-existent nose into his business and translated it for her. She'd done similar things tons of times: making the couch unimaginably smaller so they'd literally be glued to each other if they wanted to watch telly, switching their mugs so the Doctor would accidentally find himself sipping Rose's tea instead of his, rearranging doors so he'd wander for hours and always find himself right back in front of Rose's bedroom door... And he really didn't need Rose to see what he'd written. That just simply wouldn't do.

"Whatever it is, it can't be that bad," Rose tried to reason, getting up out of the armchair so she could plop down next to him on the couch. "If I guess it, will you tell me?"

The Doctor snorted. "You'll never guess it in your life, Rose Tyler."

"Is it something like, 'I will kill all Daleks' or whatever?"

"No, but that's not a bad idea."

She privately agreed with him but didn't say so. "Just _tell _me."

The Doctor gave her another stern look and bopped her on the nose in sync with his repeated, "No."

She batted his hand away, rubbing at her nose and glaring at him simultaneously, which he pretended not to see as he examined his sonic. Then Rose muttered something that made his insides freeze.

"Nobody even really goes through with New Year's resolutions anyway."

The sonic dropped from his numbed fingers and clattered onto the floor, but he was too busy staring at Rose to notice. "Th-they don't?"

Rose frowned at him. "Not really, no."

"Oh."

Oh indeed.

The thread snapped.

As it splintered he surged forward, crashing their lips together and only half-hearing her squeak of shock. That was the only counter-indication he received; Rose's mouth instantly became soft and pliable against his and hands founds their way into his hair, fisting in his mane and making him shiver. His hearts felt like they were flowers, blossoming with delight at the fact that she was kissing him back with almost as much desperation as he was. Throughout the flat all that could be heard was the sound of Rose's pants mixed with his, and the searing sound of fireworks and cheers. He licked her bottom lip, tasting wine and something inexplicably Rose.

She started to lean back, and he thought for a moment of terror that she was pulling away from him, but she pulled him down with her by grabbing onto his lapels and tugging.

_Oh. _Rose wanted her on top of him. He could most definitely do that.

Afterwards, if he needed to, he could always blame it on the two glasses of wine he'd had during the festivities (leaving out the fact that he metabolised alcohol a lot faster than humans did) or, if he was really daring, blame it on the fact that she was so god damn gorgeous in that dress. It didn't look much like he'd need any excuse, since Rose had already gotten his suit jacket off (now, when did she do that?) and was trying to shimmy out of her dress. He eagerly helped wriggle the pink scrap of fabric down and off her body like he'd imagined doing all night, pulling away from her mouth to nip a path down her jaw to her neck.

She managed to kick the dress off of her legs, now clad unabashedly only in a strapless bra and panties, and when she tries to lean over and undo the straps on her heels he said, in a hoarse voice, "Leave them on."

"Kinky," she mumbled, tongue in teeth again until he captured that tongue between his lips and sucked on it like he always wanted to.

It was only when his Oxford and tie had joined his jacket and his trousers were about to follow suit that the Doctor had the sense of mind to stop her. "Wait." He rummaged around in his bigger-on-the-inside pockets until he pulled out his resolution and gave it to her. She looked at him questioningly before opening it. "Can you read it?" She shook her head. "Hold on a mo'—" he placed two fingers at her temple for a brief moment before retracting, "— how about now?"

Slowly the circles morphed into English script, and she read over his flowing handwriting.

_I will refrain from throwing myself at Rose Tyler, no matter how much I want to._

A hysteria of giggles bubbled in her throat and he grinned sheepishly, thinking she was laughing at him until she pulled her folded up resolution, unfolded it and held it up for him to see.

_I will not throw myself at the Doctor, no matter how tempting it is._

He joined her in laughter, resting his forehead against hers. Her resolution was practically identical to his, almost word for word even. It was just so... them!

Their giggles subsided and turned into pants and sighs and moans again as the post-its fluttered to the floor and hands started to wander again. Aware that Jackie was only a couple of rooms over, he tried hard not to let loose the loud groan in the back of his throat when Rose slipped her hand into his pants and made something akin to a purring noise when she found him swollen and hard.

"C'mere," she said, trying to wiggle out of her knickers while simultaneously drawing him closer.

"Don't you need more—?"

She shakes her head vigorously, bringing one of his hands to her centre, making him buck into her when his fingers met a pool of wetness.

"_Fuck_, Rose," he hissed, ripping her knickers off.

She positioned him properly and encouraged him to push into her by lifting her hips and pressing her heels into his arse. Now, maybe next New Year he'd make a resolution not to jump her every time she wore those pink strappy heels again.

He sank into her, both of them letting out loud sighs that could have woken Jackie, but they were too far gone to care. He rocked against her for a bit before they found a rhythm, slow and sweet. As he slowly rocked in and out of her he feathered kisses over her visage and neck, tracing the path of the blush that in the past had always disappeared beneath the hem of a dress. She slipped her hands back into his hair again, pulling his head up to meet her lips, moving with him. His pace grew rough and sloppy after a while as delicious pressure engulfed them both, until both of them snapped and simultaneously moaned out their release.

The Doctor tried not to collapsed on top of her, breathing heavily; she scooched over a bit so he could spoon her properly. Once they'd caught their breaths, the Doctor regarded her with a lopsided grin. "Jackie said if she found us naked on the couch, she'd murder us."

Rose mumbled something into his shoulder that sounded suspiciously like, "Don't give a flyin' fuck."

They snuggled on the couch and fell asleep, woken in the wee hours of the morning by Jackie's shocked scream when she woke early and got up to make herself a cuppa.

And Rose Tyler knew that, no matter what happened, 'never try to stop yourself from jumping the Doctor's bones' was another thing added to Rose's list of things never to do again.

**A/N: Just a Who Holiday plot bunny that wouldn't leave me alone. It was originally going to just be called 'Resolutions' but the fabulous Rointheta beat me to the punch for that one o: Check out Ro's fics, they're BRILLIANT. Aaaanway, this was part of Vampiyaa's Who Holiday series; hope you enjoyed, please leave a review, happy New Year Whovians!**

**PS this is just one of those silly insignificant things that drive me up the wall, but it bothers me when people 'follow' one shots. They specifically said they're complete. Don't follow them, it's redundant XD lol sorry, had to put that out there.**


End file.
